Majesty and power of God

by Letters Editor · May 17, 2012

From Frank Bompas, Johannesburg

In reference to Mario Compagnoni’s letter (April 8), I am convinced that the beliefs Catholics have in the sacraments are founded on the continuous experience of God’s presence and power in them.

And if we believe in the intercessory power of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints it is because so many have found that they really do help us.

However, apart from organised religion many, some not even orthodox believers, have found the majesty and power of God in nature. Many scientists too have come to the conclusion that only the infinite intelligence of God accounts satisfactorily for the mind-boggling immensity of the universe and the enormous variety and complexity of living creatures.

Philosophers such as Aristotle and theologians like St Thomas Aquinas have tried to show that the existence of the universe demands an ultimate and unlimited cause outside of itself.

The existence of God and his relationship with the world and human beings is the most important issue that mankind has to deal with; and the almost universal acknowledgement of God is probably the greatest achievement of man.

But if man has indeed found God it is because God is continuously trying to reach us. In many ways the history of the world is a history of God endlessly manifesting himself to us and of us reaching out to him.

However, although God is so deeply involved in the world, we cannot always rely on our own individual private experience to discover him, any more than we can rely on our own experiences to prove the theories and laws of science.

The stories of the large numbers of people who have been touched by God in a powerful way have been recorded very abundantly in books and magazines and on Christian radio and TV stations as well as websites.